August was a month of concentration. On Duty ranked in the top 3 for 513 queries, on the first page for 1,043 queries, and inside the top 20 for 1,370 queries, counted across every search the site appeared for. All three bands came down from July: 149 fewer queries held a top 3 spot and 107 fewer held the first page. Traffic went the other way. Clicks rose from 105 to 162, a 54 percent gain, against 31,938 impressions, and the first page still delivered 91 percent of every click the site earned on 15,815 impressions, with the top 3 alone delivering 57 percent. Fewer queries are holding the top positions, and the ones that held converted far better than they did a month ago. The site is pulling more traffic out of a tighter, stronger set of positions.
The single largest search term on the site this month is "stainless steel liner for chimney cost," ranking position 5 with 3,412 impressions. That is more than three times the next query on the list and roughly four times what the previous biggest driver produced last month. It lands on the Chimney Liner Cost Guide, the February pillar we published on your behalf. Alongside it, "chimney liner cost" improved from position 7 to position 4 across every metro we track, and the long-flagged chimney cap cost page finally responded: "chimney cap cost" climbed from 22 to 18 and "how much to cap a chimney" climbed from 11 to 7.
Underneath those site-wide totals sits a narrower working list: the priority commercial terms we check by hand every day in each market, on desktop and mobile. Across that list, 222 terms hold a top 3 position, 413 hold the first page, and 542 sit inside the top 20, with 129 more on page 2 in striking distance. It is a deliberately small, hand-picked set, so it tells us how the money terms are moving city by city rather than restating the counts above. Top-3 concentration on that list softened slightly against July while the page-2 bench grew, which is the normal shape of a month where a lot of brand-new pages enter the index at mid-table positions and then climb.
That is exactly what happened. The town page program went live in August: 53 service-area pages are now published, and they are already registering. "chimney repairs marlborough" is at position 10 with 1,088 impressions, the second-largest single query on the site, and Westford queries have entered page 2. None of those queries existed for this site three months ago.
In AI search, Perplexity emerged as the single largest surface at 30 citations, ahead of Google AI Mode at 23 and Google AI Overviews at 17, for 78 citations across the cross-platform snapshot. Microsoft's own reporting jumped to 87 citations, up 248%. And Google's first-party Generative AI report shows 8,430 impressions inside AI answers, up from 8,110, with the Chimney Liner Cost Guide alone accounting for 73% of them.
We pull from several sources so no single tool tells the whole story. The headline counts above come from Google's own reporting, which covers every search On Duty appeared for. The city-by-city and map pack numbers further down come from a daily rank tracker checking each market separately on desktop and mobile. AI citations come from the platforms themselves. Each number comes from whichever source measures it best, and stays with that source month to month.
Queries where On Duty currently appears on the first page of Google. These are the search terms actively bringing buyers to the site. Two entries at the top of this list are new this month and together account for more than 4,500 impressions.
| Keyword | Position | Monthly Impressions |
|---|---|---|
| stainless steel liner for chimney cost | 5 | 3,412 |
| chimney repairs marlborough | 10 | 1,088 |
| chimney liner cost | 5 | 915 |
| chimney cleaning | 2 | 701 |
| chimney repair | 1 | 694 |
| on duty chimney | 2 | 532 |
| chimney sweep near me | 3 | 291 |
| chimney relining cost | 3 | 234 |
| chimney repair near me | 3 | 225 |
| chimney sweep | 2 | 222 |
| on duty chimney sweep | 1 | 220 |
| chimney leak repair | 1 | 211 |
| chimney service | 9 | 211 |
| chimney liner replacement cost | 5 | 209 |
| chimney liner installation cost | 8 | 201 |
| chimney services | 1 | 188 |
| chimney rebuild cost | 7 | 178 |
| fireplace cleaning | 5 | 170 |
| chimney company | 2 | 167 |
| chimney crown repair | 5 | 161 |
53 service-area town pages went live across August. "chimney repairs marlborough" is already at position 10 with 1,088 impressions, the second-largest query on the entire site. "chimney inspections westford ma" and "chimney cleaning westford ma" have entered page 2 at positions 19 and 17. These queries produced nothing for this site before the pages existed, and town pages typically take two to four months to settle into their final positions, so this is the early read rather than the finished result.
| Keyword | Position | Clicks | Impressions |
|---|---|---|---|
| on duty chimney | 2 | 67 | 532 |
| on duty chimney masonry stove | 2 | 16 | 107 |
| chimney sweep near me | 3 | 9 | 291 |
| chimney repair near me | 3 | 6 | 225 |
| chimney sweep leominster | 3 | 6 | 51 |
| chimney liner cost | 5 | 4 | 915 |
| on duty chimney sweep | 1 | 3 | 220 |
| chimney liner cost per foot | 3 | 3 | 53 |
| chimney cleaning near me | 6 | 3 | 55 |
| pellet stove cleaning near me | 4 | 3 | 43 |
Queries already ranking on page 2 where a small content or link push moves them onto page 1. These are the next wave of winsStriking distance keywords are search terms ranking close to page 1 (positions 11 to 20). They typically take less work to push onto page 1 than starting a brand new keyword from scratch.. The shape of this list changed this month: it is now dominated by the chimney crown and chimney cap cost cluster, which all lives on two pages. That concentration is useful, because fixing two pages moves nine of these fourteen terms at once.
| Keyword | Position | Monthly Impressions |
|---|---|---|
| chimney crown cost | 13 | 299 |
| chimney crown repair cost | 16 | 150 |
| chimney cap replacement cost | 18 | 99 |
| chimney replacement cost | 15 | 61 |
| chimney crown repair costs | 16 | 53 |
| chimney fire cleanup ma | 15 | 48 |
| chimney repointing cost | 13 | 47 |
| chimney inspections westford ma | 19 | 43 |
| chimney crown replacement cost | 15 | 33 |
| chimney cleaning westford ma | 17 | 33 |
| chimney liner installer near me | 18 | 31 |
| chimney liner install near me | 15 | 27 |
| chimney inspection near me | 15 | 24 |
| chimney cleaners near me | 15 | 23 |
"chimney crown cost" (299 impressions, position 13), "chimney crown repair cost" (150, position 16), "chimney cap replacement cost" (99, position 18) and six more all resolve to the Chimney Repair Cost Guide or the chimney cap cost page. The on-page fix we have specified for the cap cost page, a dedicated FAQ block plus the verified $1,440 to $5,460 cap pricing, is the same fix that serves this whole cluster. The page already moved from 22 to 18 this month without it, which tells us the page is responsive and the fix should land.
These specific pages are the foundation for everything ranking. Each one drives traffic across dozens of related search terms. The number of ranking queriesA "ranking query" is a unique search term that this specific page shows up for on Google during the reporting month. One page often ranks for hundreds of related searches at once. shown next to each page is how many different Google searches each page is showing up for.
Real local 3-packWhen someone searches for a local service like "chimney sweep near me," Google shows a special box at the top with a map and three business listings. This is called the local 3-pack or "map pack" and ranking inside it is a major driver of calls. rankings checked every day across the metros On Duty serves. During August, On Duty held a top-three local pack position on 50 distinct keywords across their service area. Leominster and Fitchburg are close to a clean sweep at position 1, and Groton holds 1 to 3 on nearly everything it registers for.
| Keyword | Leominster | Fitchburg | Groton |
|---|---|---|---|
| chimney repair | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| chimney sweep | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| chimney sweeps | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| chimney cleaning | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| chimney repair near me | 1 | 1 | |
| chimney sweep near me | 1 | 1 | |
| fireplace cleaning near me | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| fireplace repair | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| fireplace cleaning | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| fireplace installation | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| chimney inspections | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| chimney company | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| chimney service | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| chimney servicing | 2 | 1 | |
| chimney sweep company | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| chimney cap repair | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| chimney crown repair | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| chimney leak repair | 1 | 2 | |
| masonry chimney repair | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| brick chimney repair | 1 | 1 | |
| stone chimney repair | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| chimney repair massachusetts | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| wood stove installation | 1 | 2 | |
| stove installation | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| stove repair | 2 | ||
| gas stove repair | 1 | ||
| pellet stove repair | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Tracked location | In the top three | Keywords tracked |
|---|---|---|
| Leominster (desktop) | 49 | 67 |
| Leominster (mobile) | 49 | 67 |
| Fitchburg | 47 | 67 |
| Groton | 43 | 67 |
| Harvard | 8 | 13 |
| Bolton | 7 | 13 |
| Lancaster | 7 | 13 |
| Keyword | Map position | Days held in August | National monthly searches |
|---|---|---|---|
| chimney sweep | 1 | 31 of 31 | 60,500 |
| chimney sweep near me | 1 | 31 of 31 | 60,500 |
| fireplace insert | 1 | 29 of 31 | 47,500 |
| gas stove repair | 1 | 31 of 31 | 33,100 |
| chimney cleaning | 1 | 31 of 31 | 20,100 |
| chimney repair near me | 1 | 31 of 31 | 20,100 |
| chimney repair | 1 | 30 of 31 | 18,100 |
| chimney service | 1 | 31 of 31 | 8,100 |
| fireplace repair | 1 | 31 of 31 | 8,100 |
Fifty distinct keywords held a top-three local pack position during August across the tracked service area, and nine of the biggest head terms in the category sat at map position 1 in Leominster on all or nearly all 31 days. Local pack placement is the single biggest driver of phone calls for a chimney business, and this is the run-up to the September to November peak, when that placement is worth the most.
This month's AI visibility picture comes from four complementary lenses plus a new prompt-level view. The cross-platform snapshot as of August 31 shows 78 On Duty citations, and the shape of it changed: Perplexity is now the single largest surface at 30 citations, ahead of Google AI Mode at 23 and Google AI Overviews at 17. Microsoft's own reporting shows 87 citations over a 30-day window, up 248% from last period. And Google's first-party Generative AI report shows 8,430 impressions inside AI Overviews and AI Mode, up from 8,110. The Chimney Liner Cost Guide carries the heaviest share of all three.
Perplexity moved from 5 citations to 30, a sixfold increase, and it did it on just three pages. Perplexity users are disproportionately researching before a purchase rather than browsing, which makes this a high-intent surface to own. The pages Perplexity is pulling from are the same cost guides driving everything else, which means the content strategy already in place is what earned this. No separate work was needed, and nothing needs to change to keep it.
Citation counts for each AI search platform tracked. "Citations" is the total number of times On Duty was named as a source in an AI answer. "Pages cited" is how many different On Duty URLs were pulled by that platform.
Google's own Generative AI features reportA beta Google report that shows how often your pages appear inside AI-generated answers on Google (AI Overviews and AI Mode). Unlike traditional impressions, these show up when Google's AI synthesizes an answer using your content as a source. gives us Google's own direct measurement of how often On Duty pages surface inside AI Overviews and AI Mode. Every other AI view in this section relies on third-party crawlers. This one comes straight from Google.
| On Duty page | AI impressions | Share of total |
|---|---|---|
| /chimney-liner-cost/ | 6,115 | 72.5% |
| /chimney-repair-cost-guide/ | 850 | 10.1% |
| All other On Duty pages combined | 1,465 | 17.4% |
The Chimney Liner Cost Guide and the Chimney Repair Cost Guide, both published on your behalf in February 2026, account for 6,965 of the 8,430 impressions Google's AI generated for On Duty this period. That is the second consecutive month where two independent data sources tell the same story: the cross-platform snapshot shows these pillars leading AI citations, and Google's own first-party report shows those same URLs driving the impressions. Seven months after publication they are still the engine.
New this month. Rather than counting citations in aggregate, this view tracks ten specific questions a Central Massachusetts homeowner would actually type into an AI assistant, and checks every day whether On Duty is named among the sources. It answers the practical question directly: when a real buyer asks, does the brand come up.
| Question asked of an AI assistant | Google AI Overviews | ChatGPT |
|---|---|---|
| Can you recommend a reliable company for chimney repair services in my area? | Cited · 1st source | Cited · 2nd source |
| Can you recommend reliable chimney repair services for my home? | Cited · 2nd source | Cited · 3rd source |
| Who's the best chimney sweep in Leominster MA? | Cited · 1st source | Not yet |
| How much does chimney repair cost in central Massachusetts? | Cited · 3rd source | Cited · 1st source |
| Best masonry chimney repair in Leominster? | Cited · 3rd source | Cited · 1st source |
| Pellet stove repair Leominster MA? | Cited · 1st source | Cited · 1st source |
| Chimney liner replacement cost central MA? | Cited · 1st source | Cited · 1st source |
| Chimney repair company in Worcester MA? | Not yet | Cited · 1st source |
| Chimney inspection service Worcester area? | Not yet | Cited · 1st source |
| Top rated chimney sweep Worcester MA? | Not yet | Cited · 1st source |
Being cited at all is the first hurdle. Being named first is the one that produces a call, and On Duty is the first source listed on six of the ten ChatGPT answers and four of the seven AI Overviews answers. The three Worcester questions Google AI Overviews has not picked up yet are the clearest remaining opportunity, and the Worcester town page we published in August is the asset built to close them.
Notes on the data: Google's Generative AI features report currently surfaces impression data only, not clicks, because AI-generated answers often satisfy the query in place without the user visiting the source. Treat those numbers as authority and exposure indicators rather than direct-traffic drivers. Separately, Google does not generate an AI Overview for every query on every check, so a "not yet" in the AI Overviews column above can mean either that On Duty was not cited or that Google returned no AI answer to measure on that day.
September opens the heaviest demand window of the year and runs through November. The pre-season content is published and indexing. The plan for next month is about converting the positions we already hold into first-page and top-3 placements while volume is at its peak.
"stainless steel liner for chimney cost" at position 5 with 3,412 impressions is now the largest single opportunity on the site by a wide margin. A dedicated stainless steel liner section and FAQ block on the Chimney Liner Cost Guide, using the verified $4,735 to $8,896 installed range, targets the exact query and should move it toward the top 3 during peak season.
Nine of the fourteen striking-distance terms are cap and crown cost queries on two pages. The pending FAQ block plus the verified $1,440 to $5,460 cap pricing and $800 to $3,400 crown pricing, with a link between the two pages, moves the whole cluster at once. The cap page gained four positions in August unaided, so it is primed.
"masonry chimney repair" held map position 1 in Leominster on all 31 days of August on desktop and 30 of 31 on mobile, plus a top-three local pack spot all month in Fitchburg, Groton, Harvard, Bolton and Lancaster. The map result is already won. The opportunity is page depth: expanding the masonry repair service page and linking it from the Worcester town page and the homepage puts the organic listing on the same footing the map result already holds, and gives Google AI Overviews more to cite on the Worcester questions.